The Chinese blessing “May you live in interesting times” was in fact a curse, and interesting the passing year 2003 has certainly been. The confrontation with, invasion and difficult pacification of Iraq has preoccupied not just the Middle East but the world.
President Bush’s global war against terrorism was diverted into an attack against Saddam Hussein’s odious Baathist regime, ostensibly because of weapons of mass destruction which have never been found and links to terrorism which have never been proven. The enterprise so consumed Washington’s attention that many will argue that the real war against the enemy, represented by Al-Qaeda and its offshoots, has been sidetracked.
Nothing has been done to address the issues on which the terrorists draw to justify their barbarity, principally Palestine. Indeed, this year has seen a significant deterioration of conditions for the Palestinians, as the hateful Israeli wall continues to grow and slice through the occupied territories. For many, peace has probably never seemed so far away and the Americans never so disinterested in pushing for a just and lasting settlement.
Ariel Sharon’s Israel, by contrast, had a good year. The suicide bombers do not look to the outside world like a desperate population fighting back the only way that they feel they can. They look like terrorists because their crimes are indiscriminate in the death and misery they bring. But Israeli attacks upon the Palestinians, for all the death of innocents that they cause, are nothing like the state terror to which they are a desperate response. Sharon and his people have presented their continued occupation and oppression of Palestine as a struggle with terror. The world has been largely duped.
Here in the Kingdom we have also seen the naked face of terrorism in all its brutality. No one can now be in doubt that this scourge threatens everyone who believes in moderation and decency. From Bali to Istanbul to Riyadh to Moscow, the malign and bloody hand of the terrorists wrought terrible destruction and anguish.
In the closing days of the year, nature has added its own horror in the massive loss of life in the Iranian city of Bam. But in this dark hour, Iranians have seen help and generosity lavished on the earthquake victims from all over the world.
Libya has at long last come in from the diplomatic cold in accepting nuclear and WMD inspections. Of no less significance is the major progress being made between India and Pakistan over the disputed Jammu and Kashmir. This old wound, which has riven the neighbors for too long, could finally be healing.
Many bitter lessons have been learnt in 2003. If they have not numbed us, they may make it easier to confront the challenges ahead. After such a difficult and dangerous twelve months, our most fervent wish must be for a much happier New Year.
